A civil lawsuit of more than $20 million, in which a Quebec woman accused UNICEF and Ikea Canada of copying original plush toys she created, has been quashed.

In June, a Quebec judge rejected Claude Bouchard’s action against the United Nations charitable organization because it has immunity against legal suits.

Bouchard also sued Ikea Canada, which according to her, commercialized toys with the same characteristics as her own. They violated her rights on the unique toys she created the concept for decades ago, she alleged.

The toys are made of fabric and are based on children’s drawings, usually representing imagined creatures.

At the UN’s request, Canada’s attorney general intervened in the judicial debate in order to validate the absolute immunity that exists in UNICEF’s favour, since it’s a UN subsidiary.

After having analyzed the Charter of the United Nations and its applications in Canadian law, Superior Court Judge Denis Jacques concluded on June 13 that “the defendant, UNICEF, benefits from an immunity that prevents all recourse, an immunity that they did not renounce in this case.”

Ikea also tried to get the suit against them dropped, alleging that the case had no chance of success. In a decision made the same day, Jacques rejected their demand. The $1-million suit will continue against Ikea Canada and Inter Ikea Systems B.V.

The Lawsuit

In January 2016, Bouchard said she was “stupefied” when she saw toys similar to her own in an Ikea store in Montreal. She accused the furniture store of having illegally reproduced and commercialized an important part of her work. The suit alleges millions of these plushies could have been sold by Ikea.

Bouchard maintains she previously sold her toys in a UNICEF boutique on St-Denis St. in Montreal from 1994 to 2005.

She then presented a business plan to UNICEF to sell the toys internationally for the organization’s 50th anniversary. This plan was rejected, because she didn’t have the means to produce the toys on a large scale, the suit claims. Bouchard said that UNICEF has been collaborating with Ikea since 2003 for a toy series called “Plushies for education,” and in 2014, Ikea started selling their “Sagoskatt” collection, with a contest where children could see their drawings turned into toys. The company would give a portion of proceeds to UNICEF.

The Ikea-made plushies couldn’t have been created without UNICEF’s help, which had privileged access to her concept, Bouchard alleges.

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